


This Magic Moment

by smilingsarah10



Series: Right Hand Frat [13]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: M/M, TW Hazing, TW Panic, TW Slight Noncon, fraternity au, tw slurs, tw violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-02
Updated: 2016-07-02
Packaged: 2018-07-19 14:16:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7364803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smilingsarah10/pseuds/smilingsarah10
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The RHF crew goes camping. Seabury takes things too far and there are multiple consequences.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Magic Moment

**Author's Note:**

> This is a little more graphic than usual. There are slurs from Seabury so be prepared. Some of us have been really waiting for this moment for awhile. Please start the series from the beginning, or the end of this won't be nearly so satisfying. As always, I'm sure there are many errors. Holla at me and I will fix them.

Thomas approached Laf on the Tuesday of the retreat as Laf was walking from their last class back to the house to pack the trailer with all the tents and supplies 24 people would need to camp for one night. The poor guy looked terrible. Usually so put together, his clothes looked sloppy, there were bags under his eyes, and his skin was ashen as if he was sick. “Yes, I know I look terrible. I was hoping you could help me convince James that I’m sorry for flying off the handle. He comes into the room to get more stuff, and I’m terrified he’s going to leave me over something this stupid.” 

Laf put a hand on his shoulder. “You’ve talked to ‘im about it, oui?” When Thomas shook his head, Laf sighed. “You boys are ‘opeless. A little communication would fix this problem but ‘ere you are talking to me instead of ‘im about whether I can ‘elp fix it. You know just as well as I do that YOU could fix it. But, yes, I will ‘elp. You two are assigned the same tent. You WILL talk to ‘im, and you will work this out.” 

Where Thomas had been standing there taking Laf’s words with a frown, he lit up and did a happy dance when Laf agreed to help. Before Laf knew it, Thomas was wrapped around them in a tight embrace. “OH God, Laf, thank you so much. You’re the best. A saint among people, really.” Laf patted his head. “Yeah, yeah, it doesn’t come free. Come along. If I’m ‘elping you, you’re ‘elping me. We’ve got 12 tents and sleeping pallets and things to pack.” Thomas followed them with a new pep in his step and a smile on his face. 

\---------- 

Herc and James were the second to last to arrive at the house when it was time for everyone to leave. They weren’t going far: the campsite that they traditionally went to was about an hour out of the way with a thirty minute split between main roads and backroads. Alex saw Thomas slide in beside James and ask if they could talk later. He genuinely hoped that they got their problems sorted out, because he had never seen a couple that was so in love with their partner. Well except maybe one. The other couple in question was running between the six cars making sure that everyone was there. Laf was in charge of the actives, John in charge of the pledges. It was impressive really how in tune with each other they were without opening their mouth to speak to each other. When he looked really close, he thought he saw John defer to Laf, but it wasn’t in John’s personality to defer to anyone really so maybe he was misreading that situation. 

“All twelve pledges including myself are present and accounted for,” John called out before getting in his SUV that was pulling the trailer with Alex. The front passenger seat was left open for Laf, but the fact that there was no one in the back with Alex meant that someone was still missing. “Still missing one, Laf,” John finished when he saw Alex alone. They both were listening for them to call back the name of the active that was missing, when Alex saw him exit the sorority house and sneak across the road where it wouldn’t be obvious where he was coming from. With his bag strung across his shoulders, Burr calmly and casually approached Laf. Together they walked over to the car. 

As they were getting in, Alex picked up on their conversation. Burr was practically purring, using a voice meant to soothe, “Big, I wasn’t actually late. We are leaving ten minutes early still! And I can’t help that I wasn’t here early. I laid down to take a nap and when I woke up it was time to go. A harmless mistake, but one that I am still sorry for.” 

Laf sighed and rubbed their temples. “You’re right. It is a ‘armless mistake. I’m sorry for snapping. I just want this to go perfectly. You’ve got navigation on the car screen, right John?” 

With the apology out of the way, Burr relaxed into his seat. Alex waited until John and Laf were distracted by their own conversation to speak. “So, Aaron, who were you napping with?” 

Burr’s head whipped around, and he regarded Alex with caution. After a moment, he managed to build up a wall of composure. Alex smiled at him, in a way that meant that Burr had no secrets, but Burr chose to lie anyways. “I’m not sure what you mean. I was alone.” 

Alex loved playing the vague game, almost as much as he loved playing the blunt game. He looked at Burr in mock shock. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know you had your own room in the sorority house. My apologies.” His shock faded into a smile the longer he talked primarily because Burr almost spit out his water when he realized Alex had seen him. 

He was apparently going to just continue to lie though. “Oh, no, you’re mistaken. I just had to return a book I was borrowing before we left. Can’t let someone else’s studying fall behind because of a camping trip.” His hand scratched the back of his neck. Alex loved catching people in lies. So he let him keep digging the hole. 

“What a gentleman! Who knew you were so considerate, Aaron,” Alex batted his eyelashes at him causing him to scoff and turn away. That’s when Alex found his proverbial nail in the coffin. “Oh, on the way over there did you get in a fight? With a vacuum cleaner maybe? You seem to have lost.” 

Burr’s eyes got huge, his hand flying to his neck and feeling the hickey. He glared at Alex before whispering, “So I was at the sorority house? So what? I’m not going to talk about it anymore.” 

Before he could get his headphones in, Alex let out a tinkering laugh. “Don’t worry, Aaron. I won’t tell anyone. If you want to talk about it though, I am also very into one of the girls in that house so we have some common ground.” 

Burr’s eyes softened a little. “Yeah. I’ll consider it.” With that, his headphones were in, and Alex was left to pester John and Laf for the rest of the car ride. 

\---------- 

When they got to the campsite, everyone was split into groups with something to do. There was a group that was in charge of dinner, there was a group that was in charge of pitching the tents, there was a group finding supplies, and a group setting up the campfire that was about half a mile from the camp itself. Then there was John. John’s job was apparently reining in Laf’s tendency to micromanage. “You know, y’all have all done this before. It’s gonna be fine.” He was massaging their shoulders as he spoke. 

Laf turned and laid their forehead on his shoulder. He knew that they were having a rough mental day, having woken up feeling more feminine and having to come on this trip anyways. They had talked themselves out of wearing a dress that morning even though John had told them they looked stunning, opting instead for a blouse, tight khaki shorts, and hiking boots. “How are you holding up, darlin’?” John asked after a moment of silence. Laf stood up to their full height, taking a deep breath and composing themself. John kissed their nose. From somewhere he heard someone yell, “Get a room! Er… tent!” and the whole troop of them, including Laf burst into laughter. 

“Oui, love. I’ll be more than fine. I’m surrounded by some of my favorite people in the great wild. What could go wrong?” As they said those fateful words, there was an explosion from where the food prep was happening followed by laughter and “Dude, your eyebrows,” and “Everything’s fine. Go about your own business.” Laf went back to fretting over every group, John following and shooting sympathetic looks and helping where he could. 

\---------- 

James had promised Thomas they would talk that night. Thomas had lit up and said that he couldn’t wait. There was a guilt that had settled into James stomach the longer he spent away from Thomas, but the time had never seemed right to apologize. Seeing Thomas so disheveled but excited to even have the chance to talk to James only made it worse. He was relieved that Thomas wasn’t mad, but he thought for the first time about the consequences of staying away: Had Thomas slept at all? Had he taken his medicine? He could ask him all that after they laid everything out. James decided he didn’t care about the consequences anymore, he just wanted to tell Thomas everything. The thought that things were going to go back to some semblance of normal made James laugh a little more, relax a little more, and made everything seem just a little better. 

Herc had been the first to notice. “Yo, my man, you look like a whole new person. Did you and Thomas finally make nice?” They were gathering firewood and kindling in general. It was peaceful work. Easy compared to pitching 12 tents or preparing dinner for 24 hungry people. They had been working in comfortable silence when Herc had cut through the silence. James smiled. 

“We haven’t yet necessarily, but we are going to talk through it tonight, and I’m going to tell him everything. He deserves to know. I just hope that my secrets haven’t done any irreparable damage,” the thought that this talk might not fix everything set James on edge. He tried to shake it off as Herc assured him that he was making the right decision. James put on his best fake smile and went back to their comfortable silence trying to ignore the panic that was peeking its way over his emotional horizon. 

\---------- 

The night was progressing well, in Laf’s opinion. Dinner had surprisingly not gotten burnt. The campfire was large and boisterous, just like the group around it. Everyone was wearing smiles. They had done a few of the more entertaining fraternity songs and a round of popcorn for the new members to practice the creed. George Frederick was the first to report back about his and John’s pledge activity, spinning a tall tale about how good John was as a wingman. John had shrunk into himself but as George got further into the story he relaxed and told the more embarrassing parts. He and George had unwittingly bonded, and Laf couldn’t help but be proud of John for not backing down from that challenge. They even did a relatively comical fist bump before George dropped his name back in the hat. After they went, each pairing told their stories, ending with Alex and Seabury. Alex told his version of the story while Seabury scowled in the corner. Everyone else enjoyed watching Alex flail about and tell the story animatedly, and Seabury finally relinquished his name. With all 12 back in the hat, it was time to redraw. This time, each pledge would be paired with their mentor for a full week. 

Laf moved from active to active having them draw a name. As they were mingling, they couldn’t help but notice Seabury had pulled James and John aside. They were having an animated conversation that set Laf on edge for some reason. They could see the tension in John’s shoulders. He always tensed up before lashing out, and for a very scary moment, Laf thought they were about to have to break up a fight. James laid a hand on John’s shoulder while Seabury smirked. John didn’t get any less tense, but instead of lashing out, he turned and came back to the group. The crackle of the fire felt like a direct reflection of the fire in John’s eyes when he locked them with Laf. Laf cocked their eyebrow, a question hanging silently in the air about John’s wellbeing. John took a deep breath in before giving a curt nod that was supposed to mean he was fine. Laf conceded and finished handing out the slips, picking for himself and then handing the last name to Seabury with a little more force than necessary. 

They again did the roll call to see who was paired with whom. Again, Laf was primarily interested in who the four had been paired with. In a bizarre twist of fate, Alex was paired with George Washington, Herc and Aaron manged to pull Thomas and James, and Laf had pulled John. Although Laf was blushing at the vulgar comments their brothers made regarding the pairing, they couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief at the thought that maybe this time around, no one would have to do anything crazy. They could use a weeklong break. 

Once all the official activities ended, the Georges broke out contraband alcohol: enough to get them all plenty smashed. While they passed out drinks, Laf and Burr were busy setting up a s’mores bar. The singing started up again as the stars started to twinkle into view. The howling was interspersed with stories of trips and antics past, with older members roasting each other and younger members staring in awe. The group decided to call it a night after deciding they were never going to top Herc’s quote of the night: “Never call your fraternity a frat. You wouldn’t all your country a cunt, would you?” 

With all the jocularity as the group moved back to the tents and settled in for the night, Laf didn’t notice John missing until Thomas came running to their tent. 

\---------- 

“Knees, boys, you should be used to this by now.” The fire flickered low as Seabury talked down to them as he usually did. He was in rare form that night. John had almost fought him earlier when he’d pulled them aside and told them to stay after campfire. They were being punished for having a better weekend than he had. John could only imagine what kind of punishment they would be getting since he’d had the audacity to argue with him much less threaten to throw a punch. The sadistic gleam in Seabury’s eye did nothing to quell the anger rising in John. He was getting tired of being pushed around and bullied. 

“Because of _John’s_ little stunt earlier, y’all don’t get to use your hands. As a matter of fact, you’re going to be stuck to that tree over there by you wrists while I issure a suitable punishment one at a time.” John hated the way Seabury said his name almost as much as he hated the thought of being restrained by anyone but Laf. Regardless of his feelings, he got to his feet and followed James to the tree where they were both handcuffed over a lower limb, John facing away from the fire and James facing it. “John, part of your punishment is that you aren’t allowed to see what’s coming. James, since you’re so determined to tell Thomas about our fun, your punishment is that you aren’t allowed to tell John what’s coming. I forgot to have you take off your pants. Hmm. Well don’t get too excited, but I will help you with that.” 

“Literally, what the fuck?!” John spat and pulled against the cuffs as Seabury pulled his pants down to his ankles and his boxers down only in the back so that his ass was showing. He was cursing and flailing. Normally when he started to get riled up and panicked, he looked to James for calm. James in this situation was taking really shallow breaths and looked as if he was going to pass out. “Seabury, James isn’t ok. He has asthma! This can wait. Let us down.” 

James’ eyes kept widening in fear, and John could only watch with horror mirroring James’ as his friend spiraled into a panic induced asthma attack. “I’m going to start screaming if you don’t at least let him down to go find help! He could die!” 

All of the sudden Seabury was behind him, “You scream, John, and the gig is up. Take a deep breath.” 

All of the sudden there was a searing pain across his left ass cheek that spread quickly through his body. He choked on a sob. The pain morphed into an anger that John couldn’t contain. Fuck Seabury and this stupid, twisted game he wanted to play. John thrashed against his restraints, but when it became obvious he wasn’t going to be able to break free, he screamed for the one person he knew would fight for him, no matter what. 

\---------- 

Thomas had been concerned when he sought out Laf, but his fears had been confirmed when there was a yell from the campsite of Laf’s entire name. Laf had taken off faster than any normal person should have been able to run, probably knowing that the voice belonged to John. When Thomas caught up, he saw James and John hanging from a tree in the corner. Whoever had strung them up was nowhere in sight. Laf was trying to calm a pissed and hysterical John. John looked as if he had been branded, but Thomas was more concerned with James who looked as if he was having a panic attack and an asthma attack at the same time. 

Thomas went over in front of him, fumbling in his pocket for his inhaler. He walked James through the steps to take it, controlling the puffs like they had practiced. James was sobbing, and Thomas did his best to calm him down. “Shh, hey. We’ve got you. James, look at me. I’ve got you. We are gonna find who did this. Well, Laf is gonna find who did this. I’m gonna stay right here and figure out the handcuff failsafe to get you down. Do you need another puff?” 

James shook his head. He didn’t look like he was calming down, but he did look a little better with the effects of the inhaler kicking in. Thomas was on his tiptoes, pressed up against James to look for a way to get the cuffs off. He only looked down when he heard a very shaky, “Thomas?” 

James was looking up at him with wide innocent eyes. There were tear tracks down his cheeks. “What’s up, sweetie?” Thomas placed both hands on James’ face to wipe away the remaining tears. There was a conversation going on behind him, a new voice being added to the mix, but Thomas’ top priority was in front of him. 

He cleared his throat, words still coming out raspy and half there, “I was so afraid, Thomas. Afraid of telling you what was going on. Afraid of showing up to talk and making it worse. Then I was afraid I had lost you. Afraid that I was going to die without having made things right. Afraid that you wouldn’t know how much I loved you. I promise I was going to tell you everything after this. I was going to come clean. Fucking Seabury made us have this surprise meeting, then I had the attack and I was so scared that you might have actually taken my word and stopped carrying my inhaler…” He was choking again and Thomas couldn’t stand the thought of his boyfriend in pain. 

“Hush now,” Thomas soothed with soft tones and soft touches. “I over reacted because I was worried. I know you love me. It’s gonna take a lot more to lose me than some minor fighting. And I would absolutely **never** follow any advice that might hurt you in the long run, even if it is from you. Now, I’m gonna work on getting you down, ok?” 

James nodded. Whatever was happening behind them had escalated to shouting, and Thomas wanted to get back to camp before anything crazy happened. With a quick, chaste kiss on the lips, Thomas reached up to continue fiddling with the cuffs. He heard James say, “I love you,” but before he could respond, there was a sickening crunch from where John had been behind him. For a moment the only thing that could be heard was the campfire. John’s wail of pain is what signified the start of the fight. 

\---------- 

Laf had never once heard their name shouted with such a ferocity as they heard John call it from the campsite. **“Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette!”** It was like a war cry, spurring their legs to move before their brain had even registered. They still weren’t completely processing the scene they stumbled upon when their footsteps finally slowed. Trusting that Thomas was following and would take care of James, Laf went to John who was still shouting although it was getting quieter as he ran out of steam. His pants were around his ankles and the skin of one of his ass cheeks was raised, angry and red and probably pulsing where it had been freshly branded. 

Laf turned John facing them, John speaking before they even got the chance to ask any questions, “He’s going to get away! He’s got the keys! I need down! I need to fight! God, please let me down! He hurt me! Get me down!” 

“John, who did this? They will be punished, but you ‘ave to tell me who. Was it Seabury?” Laf steadied John’s flailing form. They had never seen him this worked up before. John on a normal day wouldn’t bend to anyone’s will. His submission was earned in every aspect of his life, and normally no one wanted to work that hard for it. Laf had been working for it though, and over the past week, they had started to figure out how to get John down from the frenzies he worked himself into. They started with holding eye contact with him, gripping him by the hair. 

John looked as if he wanted to yell more, or lash out, but changed his mind and controlled his breathing. Then he answered, “Yes. It was Seabury. He’s been blackmailing James and I since we joined so that he could haze us. But I don’t care anymore. He can tell my dad, I don’t care. It hurts, Laf, it hurts. I need to fight him. I need it to stop hurting. Laf, please.” John was begging for something they couldn’t give him. Laf was going to continue trying to calm him down when he heard a branch snap behind him near the fire. He whipped around and there was a sneering Seabury standing near the fire. 

“Well, Gilbert? Aren’t you going to tell him that you can’t fix him? That if he fights me, he will get kicked out just as fast as I do? Or are you just going to keep lying to him?” Seabury was taunting. “Why don’t you tell him that I will probably get away from this with no punishment? After all, John _likes_ pain. I’m only doing you a favor by taking care of him, right?” 

John was openly sobbing at that point, hanging limply from his trapped wrists. “Seabury, literally shut up. I’m calling the police.” Before Laf could pull out his phone to dial, Seabury was back to taunting. 

“If you tell anyone, I’m telling John’s dad that he is not only gay, but he is letting someone who can’t even figure out what gender they are tell him what to do. So drop the phone or I will pick up mine.” Seabury was also reaching for his pockets. Laf was trying to maintain their calm while he was speaking. When Seabury slighted them, John started shouting about how he would kill Seabury for talking shit about his partner, and with a twist in his restraints, a crack rang out across the campfire that indicated John’s bones in his wrists were breaking. There was a moment of silence before he wailed in pain. His broken voice from earlier rang through their head, “Laf, please.” 

In that moment, they felt as if they were standing in the eye of a hurricane. They had one objective. Locking eyes on Seabury, they were on him before he had time to think about running away. Their fist sunk into his solar plexus first, knocking the wind out of him. Then they landed a kick to the back of his knees, successfully bringing him to the ground. Once there, they flipped him onto his back and pinned his arms to the ground with their knees, straddling him. “I’m going to knock you out now, and you are going to ask me for it nicely. Say please.” 

Seabury looked at Laf with terror in his eyes. Laf waited. Softly, Seabury admitted defeat. “Please.” And Laf brought their palm down hard onto his nose, effectively breaking it, then hit him once more to cause him to black out. They wanted to keep hitting, wanted to keep going until they were covered in his blood and could go back to John with the job done. They wanted to be able to say, “This is what happens to people who hurt you. I will protect you.” 

Before they could analyze their thoughts any further or act on them, strong hands were pulling them off of Seabury and away from where he was laying. Strong hands were forcing them to wash off the blood with water from a water bottle. Strong hands had dialed for 911 and police and ambulances were on their way. Laf looked up into Herc’s concerned eyes. “I had to defend him,” Laf said simply. 

Herc put a hand on their shoulder, calming the tremors that Laf didn’t know were coming from them. “Shh, Laf. I know.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Can we all say finally?


End file.
